Template talk:Infobox university/Archive 23

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Does being a UARC quality as an academic affiliation?

Doing a spot check, it doesn't look like being a UARC is usually listed under academic affiliations. I could be way off base, but is that an appropriate thing to list under academic_affiliations? Darkage7_[Talk] 17:10, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

@Darkage7, are you talking about on the UARC's page? I think {{Infobox institute}} might be a better fit for such an article, but if this one is to be used, |parent= would probably work better than |academic_affiliations=. Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 18:55, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

For example, the University of Washington's Applied Physics Lab is a UARC, affiliated with the Navy. Under UW's "academic affiliations" it doesn't list it. It does list that it's a space-grant and a sea-grant university. It seems to me like that might be an appropriate place to list that it's also a UARC. Perhaps I'm just barking up the wrong tree. The more I think about it perhaps such a connection is more appropriate for the Lab entity's specific page, rather than the University itself. Darkage7_[Talk] 19:08, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, I would save that for the lab's page. |academic_affiliations= has in its description that it should be used only for Academic organizations of which the institution is a member and provide essential definition of the institution (mission, values, activities, etc.). A lab within the university being affiliated with the Navy doesn't mean that the university as a whole is defined by that affiliation. (I'd also say that being space grant isn't an affiliation that warrants listing, cc ElKevbo.) {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 19:23, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

I agree with the direction the discussion is going and the advice that has been provided. ElKevbo (talk) 21:14, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

Make the former name an optional but not required field in infobox

For some universities, the former names include a long list of different names. The length of the former name list may even be equal to or longer than the half space of the whole content in the infobox. For this situation, it is not appropriate to put the former name list in the infobox，as it will significantly damage the readability of remaining important information in the infobox. We should make it an option to either include the former name or not. Jianghaizhi (talk) 23:03, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

Having so many former names that it would bloat the infobox seems like a rare situation. But in the event that that is indeed the situation, editors absolutely have the discretion to not include them. Sdkb ^talk 23:09, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

The parameter is already optional and, as Sdkb says, editors have the discretion to not include all former names. I'm not sure what you're asking for here. Robminchin (talk) 00:16, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

They are here because of an dispute at University of North Texas. There is an open discussion in the Talk page - you're welcome to weigh in there in that specific context. ElKevbo (talk) 00:28, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

An argument for OpenStreetMap

Hi, is there an argument for placing OpenStreetMaps (for example via Template:Mapframe) to add area and place of a university in the Infobox of its article. Something like maps of Template:Infobox museum. Thanks, Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 12:33, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

This could be an option. However, the problem is that, unlike most museums, a university is seldom well identified by a single point. See, for example, University of Oxford § Map. Maps identifying the location of a university within a larger area (e.g., using something like {{location map+}}), rather than on OSM, would probably be more useful. Robminchin (talk) 16:03, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

@Robminchin If we set for two areas the same wikidata identifier, then both areas will be highlighted when rendering in Infobox. This scenario is applied for example in Shiraz city map:

You can see that in Shiraz map, some areas are split area. So it is no need for {{location map+}}. The OSM will be adequate for split universities in one city. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 16:25, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

I can see that that is working, but I can't see how it is working. Where is the shape defined in the wikidata entry? It also seems like this would be a lot of work to define the areas that probably wouldn't happen, resulting in misleading maps with single pushpin locations for the universities. Robminchin (talk) 16:50, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

@Robminchin No. We should only set for two (or more) areas the same Wikidata_id, and OSM will highlight both. Such a simple process. No more work is required. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 16:55, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Fundamentally, the current {{location map+}} approach uses a single point already, so this wouldn't create a problem we don't already have. And overall, OpenStreetMap is a newer and better map system. I'd support a shift to it. Ideally, we want to be displaying the campus boundary, but where that's unavailable a point will suffice. Sdkb ^talk 17:25, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

@Hooman Mallahzadeh: You're going to have to explain this better, because somewhere the area to be highlighted must need to be defined in some way. Robminchin (talk) 16:26, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Apologies for my ignorance of these mapping functions. Would we need to account for articles that use this infobox and describe institutions with multiple, disparate locations? These different locations are sometimes very far apart, sometimes in different continents. ElKevbo (talk) 21:57, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

@ElKevbo These OSM maps would be optional (not mandatory), and in the seldom case that they are "in different continents" we can

1. Remove OSM
2. Only show the main building
3. Show OSM with zoom = 1 so that all locations in different continents will be displayed

See, all these three scenarios can be implemented very simply. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 04:42, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

• These are valid concerns, but as above, they're ones that are already present with our existing design of the infobox. Sdkb ^talk 04:54, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

@Sdkb: I sandboxed probably the true code at Template:Infobox university/sandbox. Please inspect that. And this is the test of code which works fine:

Sharif University of Technology

دانشگاه صنعتی شریف Dāneshgāh-e sana'ti-e sharif
File:Sharif University of Technology 2 Pouya Latifiyan.png
Former name	Aryamehr University of Technology
Motto in English	The Place of Intellectuals and Elites Transforming National Talents into Global Bests
Type	Public Research University
Established	1966 (1966)
Endowment	US$ 0.5 billion (2021)
President	Abbas Mousavi
Academic staff	460 (Full-time) (Fall 2022)
Administrative staff	395 (2021)
Students	10,812 (Fall 2022)
Undergraduates	5,659 (2021)
Postgraduates	3,390 (2021)
Doctoral students	989 (2021)
Location	Tehran , Tehran province , Iran 35°42′6.47″N 51°21′5.18″E
Campus	Urban, 74 acres (29.9 ha)
Newspaper	Sharif Daily Scientia Iranica
Colors	Dark Blue
Sporting affiliations	19 sports IUSF
Website	en.sharif.edu

I think these two lines can be added, and is an improvement. At least we can test that for 1 week and wait for its bug reports. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk • contribs)

Looking at that example, I don't think that's really the best implementation. The two problems: First, it's redundant to the map you get when you click on the globe next to the coordinates. I'd prefer that it replace it. Second, it's uncollapsed, and I don't think it's due to use up so much space in the infobox (which should have lead-level weighting) on a map when the most salient piece of information (the location) is already given. A detailed map showing the shape of the campus and its surrounding environs can be saved for the article's campus section, as I did at our FA Pomona College. Sdkb ^talk 16:02, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

References